Device for vacuum sealing containers



July 15, 1958 F. A. PARODl DEVICE FOR VACUUM SEALING CONTAINERS FiledJan. 51, 1955 INVENTOR 'FEDERICO A. PARODI BY M K ATTORNEY UnitedStates. Patent DEVICE FOR VACUUM SEALING CONTAINERS Federico A. Parodi,Montevideo, Uruguay Application January 31, 1955, Serial No. 485,156

3 Claims. (Cl. 53-88) The present invention relates to apparatus forvacuum sealing containers and more particularly to a novel sealingdevice in said apparatus, said device functioning to close containersthrough the combined action of vacuum and atmospheric pressure. Thesealing device of the in vention is particularly fashioned and arrangedas to be capable of carryingout the operation of closing containers ofthe type provided with a recession in the inside wall of the neck andwhich containers are closed by a cap that simply rests on the ledgeformed by said recession, there being interposed a gasket capable offorming a hermetic closure through the action of the atmosphericpressure, once there has been created a vacuum in the interior of thecontainer thus to be closed.

The operation involved in the closing of containers in the mannerindicated above is understood to be of common knowledge; but, up to thepresent time, the devices employed in said operation are complicatedones .that are provided with cocks for opening and closing the vacuumline, said cocks being necessarilyoperated either by hand or bymechanical means with cams and levers which make for furthercomplication of the machines employed to operate said devices.

The principal innovation furnished by the device herein submitted,besides its simplicity, consists in the factthat the container itselfplaces the device in position to operate, while also putting intooperation the vacuum line, thus assuring that said vacuum linemustremain closed when said container is not being acted upon, leaving nopossibility of interference with action being simultaneously carried outby another similar device mounted on the same said vacuum line.

The foregoing will be made clearly under-standable by means of thefollowing description, set forth in relation to the accompanyingsketches in which:

Figure 1 shows an elevated view, partly in vertical section, of a devicein accord with the present invention.

Figure 2 shows the same viewas that shown in Figure 1, but at the momentwhen said device has been carried to its operating position by abottle-container ready to be closed by the action of a vacuum.

Figure 3 shows a partial exterior view of a machine provided with aplatform on which rests the said bottle ready to be closed, when saidplatform has been elevated so as to press the mouth edge of said bottleagainst the under surface of the device of the present invention andwhich said device is mounted in vertical alignment with respect to thesaid platform.

In relation to Figure 1, it should be noted that the said device of thepresent invention forms an ensemble a which consists of a hollowcylinder 10, said cylinder being open at both ends and provided with alateral exit or outlet 11 through which to establish the desiredconnection with a vacuum pump for creating a vacuum. Inside of thecylinder 10, which must be adequately supported and maintained in avertical position, is fitted a partially hollow piston 12 whose upperpart ends in a H 2,842,916 Patented July 15, 1958 head 13, said pistonbeingso fitted within the cylinder 10 as to assure an air-tightadjustment. To the head .13 is attached a stop-catch 14 which can runthe length of a narrow slit 15 formed in the wall of the cylinder 10 andfollowing a generatrix of said cylinder; the stop-catch 14 and the slit15 are for the purpose of limiting the longitudinal stroke of the piston12 within the cylinder 10 and also serve to keep the former from turningwithin 'the latter. Of particular importance is the fact that themembers 14 and 15 guide the piston 12 within the cylinder 10 so that theopening 16 in the piston 12 is in rotational alignment with the outlet11 in the cylinder 10 when the piston 12 is at the upper end of itsstroke.

In the wall of the piston 12 is a perforation or opening 16 made in suchmanner and position that, when the piston 12 is at the extreme height ofits stroke, the perforation 16 coincides with the opening formed by thelateral exit 11 that connects to the said vacuum pump; and, when thepiston 12 is at the bottom end of its stroke, the perforation 16extends, at least partially, below the edge of the bottom end of thecylinder 10, thus permitting the passage of air into the interior of thehollow part of the piston 12.

The bottom end of the piston 12 is formed by an arinular flange 17. Arubber baand 18 is attached to' the under edge of the disk 17.

The device described above operates in the manner as shown in Figure 2which presents a bottle b with a recession in the inside wall of itsneck 19, thus leaving a protruding ledge 20 upon which rests a cap 21,there being interposed an elastic gasket v22 between the ledge 20 andthe cap 21; it is to be taken for granted that the bottle b will havebeen filled with whatever substance is desired to be contained thereinand vacuum-sealed, and that the cap 21 is of such size and form as topermit of its being loosely fitted within the neck 19 of the bottle band .in; a position of easyrest 0n the gasket 22.

The bottle b, thus prepared, and having been placed in verticalalignment to said device and elevated vuntil its mouth-edge comes incontact with the elastic band 18, further elevation of the bottle b willsuffice to .force the piston 12 to penetrate the interior of thecylinder 1011mm it reaches the limit of its stroke, at which point theperforation 16 formed in the wall of the piston 12 will coincide withthe lateral exit 11 which is connected to the said vacuum pump; thevacuum will act to compress the elastic band 18 and an air-proof closurewill thus be established.

The vacuum created in the hollow part of the interior of the piston 12will cause a ditference in pressure between the chamber formed above thecap 21 and the .interior of the bottle .11; .and this difference.inpressurewill cause the cap 21 to rise, allowing the air within thebottle b to escape as it is withdrawn by the action of the said vacuumpump. Once having created the necessary vacuum, the lowering of thebottle -b will suffice to cause the piston 12 to be forced downward byits own weightand the simple force of gravity, to the point ofblockingofr' the vacuum line; then, when the piston 12 reaches '7 thelower limit of its stroke, the perforation 16 will establishcommunication between the atmosphere and the interior of the hollow partof the piston 12, with the result that the atmospheric pressure willcause the cap 21 to be pressed downward against the gasket 22, thusassuring a hermetic closure; obviously, this action completed, thebottle b may be removed without difiiculty.

A device thus made and set up holds a number of ad vantages over thoseof similar kind and purposes that are already known. Principal amongthese advantages is the reduction to a minimum of the hindrance formedby useless space, since it is evident that, during any period ofoperation, the said vacuum pump functions continuously, thus maintainingconstant action as far as the interior of the lateral exit 11 in thewall of the cylinder 10. It will also be evident that, to assure thedifference in pressure necessary to cause the escape from the interiorof the bottle b of the air existing therein, it is necessary to withdrawonly the air contained in the hollow space of the piston 12 and thesmall chamber formed above the cap 21. Another advantage of the deviceherein described is that it has no need of cocks or jets, nor of themeans by which to operate them, inasmuch as the bottle b, itself,operates to open the vacuum line.

Because it possesses the foregoing characteristics, the more fundamentalofvwhich are illustrated in Figure 3, this said device is highlyadaptable to use as a part of automatic machines that operate to close,or cap, a large number of container units per minute. In said Figure 3,it is to be assumed that the device a is adequately supported by holder23 attached to an arm 24 that forms part of a machine consisting of alarge rotating disk, said rotating disk being provided with multipleplatforms c placed peripherally; each of said platforms will be placedin vertical alignment to its corresponding device a whose exit tube willbe coupled to a tube 25 connected through a central chamber to the saidvacuum pump; the platforms c will be operated by cams capable of raisingand lowering them, thus bringing each one of said platforms periodicallynearer to and farther from its corresponding device a. No detaileddescription or illustration of such type of machine is offered here,since they are machines that are quite well known in' the industry; asto their general structure, it is that of the rotating bottlingmachines, known and used for many years, which are fed by carrier beltsor bands and form a part of installations which, in turn, includemachines for capping bottles and thus closing them.

When a machine provided with the arrangement shown in Figure 3 is put inoperation, it is to be supposed that the bottle b will have already beenrun through machines that will have placed the gasket 22 and the cap 21in their proper positions, and that, subsequently, said bottle will havebeen carried to its proper position on the platform crwhile the latterwas at its lowest point in its periodic and regularly spaced up-and-downmovement, thus having left the bottle b in alignment with thecorresponding device a; then, as the machines, continue torotate, thecorresponding cam will operate to raise the bottle b until the upperedge of its mouth, having come up against the gasket 18, pushes thepiston 12 until the latter is brought into the position shown in Figure2, at which pointpit causes the said vacuum line to function and carryout the operation of closing the bottle b; then, once the air has beenwithdrawn from the interior of said bottle, the plat- In any machinethat operates with a vacuum, the entrance of air into any part of theclosed space forming the vacuum line is a highly disrupting factor; suchunwanted entrance of air may occur where the machine used is of the typein which the operation of opening said vacuum line involves the use of acock operated with a cam; whereas, with the arrangement hereinpresented, such said disrupting factor cannot be produced, inasmuch as,if for any cause or reason whatever, the bottle b were to fail to enterinto the machine, the elevation of the platform 0 cannot then force thepiston 12 upward without the interposition of the bottle b, and it isonly through the elevation of the piston 12 that the said vacuum linecan be opened; and, by virtue of this fact, a vacuum pump with a forceonly slightly superior to that represented by the air space of eachindividual device a, as in its turn it enters into the operating system,will sufiice to assure that the whole ensemble of such devices includedin a given installation will be sufficiently emptied of air as toproduce the desired closing of all bottles involved, in each casethrough the action of the corresponding closing or sealing device.

I claim:

1. In apparatus for vacuum sealing containers, a sealing devicecomprising a member defining a cylindrical bore extending therethrough,said member being provided with a lateral outlet communicating with saidbore, vacuum means connected to said lateral outlet, a piston slidablymounted within said bore in air-tight engagement therewith forlongitudinal reciprocation therewithin, said piston having a closedupper end and a hollow lower end, an annular flange surrounding thelower hollow end of said piston, a resilient gasket secured to the lowerface of said flange, said lower hollow end of said piston being formedwith a lateral opening therein communicating between said hollow portionof said piston and the exterior of said piston, and means to guide saidpiston during its reciprocation within said bore so that said opening insaid piston will be rotationally aligned with said outlet when saidpiston is at the upper end of its stroke, said opening beinglongitudinally spaced from said flange a distance at least as great asthe distance between said outlet and the lower end of said cylindricallybored memher.

2. A sealing device as recited in claim 1 in which said means to guidesaid piston comprises a longitudinally extending slot in saidcylindrically bored member and an outwardly extending projection securedto said piston.

3. A sealing device as recited in claim 2 in which said slot limits theupper and lower stroke of said piston within said bore.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS

